This doesn't sound good. Adams was a damn good assistant. Not sure what's up with Gar Forman or if its Thibs that is very hard to work with (a distinct possibility); Either way, it ain't good when you (seemingly) have this level of disagreement.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nba--derri ... 17937.html

INDIANAPOLIS – Pushing past defenders and doubts and delivering the Chicago Bulls flashes of a genius gone too long, Derrick Rose demonstrated the truest antidote for the franchise's dysfunction. Ball in his hands, blur on the floor, Rose tethers enemies to the common cause of the championship chase.

With so much distrust and downright disdain between the Bulls' front office and coach, the ripples of Rose's resounding return on Saturday night ought to remind general manager Gar Forman and coach Tom Thibodeau of the stakes of surviving the organization's power struggle.

Between Forman and Thibodeau the disconnect is deep, but Rose's reconstructed knee could be a powerful agent of reconciliation. With transcendent talents, there come redemptive powers. No one wants to be ousted with Rose on the roster, because he is one of those once-in-a-lifetime players for executives and coaches.

"The speed, the quickness, the power … there's no one like him," Thibodeau marveled.

Still. Seventeen months later, Rose had finally recovered from the excruciating rehabilitation of a torn anterior cruciate ligament. For 20 minutes of a preseason victory over the Indiana Pacers, Rose was long on speed and strength, and understandably short on precision. Most of all, his body is back. Rose played at a fever pitch, delivering the ball end-to-end on layups, hurdling one Pacer to a loose ball at midcourt and punctuating the play with a dunk.

"I'm not slowing down," Rose said. "I don't care who is [at] the hole. If they're going to foul me, I'm going to get up and keep going hard at them."

As Rose returns to the Bulls after missing a full season, his most important teammate – Luol Deng – is privately disappointed over the franchise's unwillingness to engage him in serious contract discussions. Deng could leave as a free agent this summer, could be traded before the February deadline – everything is so unsettled over his future.

An assistant coach that Rose deeply valued, Ron Adams, was let go over Thibodeau's wishes this summer because Forman didn't like Adams' defiant disposition. Eventually, Rose could be trapped in the middle of the Forman-Thibodeau cold war.

As the months passed without Thibodeau signing his name to a four-year contract extension last season, the coach privately feared the consequences of fully committing himself to that inevitable signature, league sources said.

If Thibodeau had been convinced that his GM was usurping the coach's influence without a signed deal, he knew the finalizing of his contract would move him further to the mercy of the GM. The Bulls had a news conference for that four-year, $18 million contract on the eve of training camp in 2012, but it was months and months until Thibodeau signed his name.

"It is a toxic relationship that I believe will ultimately derail them," one NBA coaching source with close ties to Thibodeau and Forman warned.

As Thibodeau delivered one of the best coaching performances the NBA had witnessed in years, pushing past the loss of Rose and core rotation players to beat the Brooklyn Nets and take the Miami Heat to six games in the conference semifinals, management kept pushing to exert controls on him.

What had been a strained, fractured partnership descended into permanent disrepair with Forman's firing of Adams, the Bulls' top assistant coach and decades-long confidant of Thibodeau's. If Bulls management had to take Thibodeau's criticisms and pushback, they refused to take it from Adams.

As one league source told Yahoo Sports, "Ron didn't drink the Kool-Aid there, and this was a message from Gar to Thibs that he's running the show, especially on picking the players."

Now, Rose is back and insists he's better than ever. His vertical leap has improved through months and months of work with his trainer, Rob McClanaghan. His 3-point shot is surer. Rose believes he's better than ever.

Rose changes everything in the Eastern Conference, but most of all he needs his transcendent talent to impact the fabric of this franchise. As the Chicago Bulls threaten to come undone at the organization's highest levels, Rose remains the reminder for everyone to find a way to make this franchise functional and free of discord. Gulfs are deep, but so is the talent of Rose.

Derrick Rose is back, and make no mistake: His burden has never been bigger.

bring in kobe and phil and just be done with it.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

I wonder if Kobe (if he still can play) would sign for a reasonable salary next year. As for Phil coaching, they aren't going to move Thibs out after just signing a 4 year deal. And he is not a full time GM, but more of a consultant type, so I don't see him returning but it would be interesting assuming he could get along with Thibs.

Gar should be fired immediately. Thibs is the best coach in basketball.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Gar supposedly is this guru of scouting and evaluating talent. But is he a power monger? Or is Thibs behind the scenes a total prick to manage/work with?? Or is it somewhere in the middle??

Bottom line is organization's can still win with BS like this going on (Krause vs Phil) , but it sure as hell doesn't make it any easier.

That was my reaction in an older thread, but I believe criticism of Thibs playing guys longer minutes than necessary is also valid.

I don't agree with a lot of Gar's personnel moves, but I wonder if the minutes issue will eventually be used as a pretext by management to fire Thibs over what are really disagreements over personnel.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Would like to see one more BIG on this team! One more guy that give me 10 minutes and 6 fouls, because there will be a game when we need it.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Gar was an assistant at New Mexico State when Neil McCarthy was the head coach. Pulled a lot of juco kids from the chicago area. Got canned over a recruiting violation I believe. I mention this because none of the McCarthy teams had a big. They played in the same conference as UNLV during the Tark heyday, never had a big. I don't think it was because they couldn't find one. They didn't want one. It is possible that a guy like Taj is the type of big Gar wants. I am not sold on his drafting prowess. If Ron Adams didn't think Snell was going to be an NBA player and that got him canned, my gut tells me Ron was right. Murphy is slow as molasses. He is like a smaller version of that fatass that was shipped to New Orleans and then Toronto, only smaller with an outside shot.

I agree with Nas. In the Thibs versus Gar battle, take Thibs.

Murphy reminds me of this guy:

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whatever happened to garpax? for the longest time all of the talking heads in the media (most notably the FOTS) kept up with the garpax amalgam, but then all of a sudden the message from those irrefutable sources came that gar was running the show this is 100.0% a gar forman joint and don't you get it twisted. ever since that edict (or perhaps even a call upstairs saying "we've had enough of that garpax stuff. get on message, boys") or maybe even the vinnie del negro tie-choking incident, john paxson has suddenly departed the scene and now when there's management/thibs animus (no doubt over playing the players to death, cuz i can see management like "thibs you gotta stop overplaying our players" and thibs all "this is what you need to do in order to win a championship in this league, if the players can't handle it that's on them. get me these [type of] players that i need. management: "fuck you, you're gonna get what we give you.... and also fuck ron fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you * points to jerry * you're cool fuck you fuck you fuck you i'm out" * drops the mic *

so yeah, tl;dr = is john paxson truly retired/out-of-the-picture, or has the process of the full-on transfer of all of the responsibility and thus bullshit to gar forman been completed? i always had the feeling that paxson didn't have any problems with the GM job, he just absolutely loathed the media to the point of constructing the gar forman shield.... which means that if gar was some middle management dude who was always fiercely loyal to "the boss" --- this thibbs stuff could be baby's first power struggle if gar (thinks he) has any power in the decision making @ the berto center.

either way, i find it hard to believe that there's a management/thibs schism over there without paxson being on one side or the other. just don't expect him to field questions about it.

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Garpax can suck it.

Not a fan. 2 guys in the perfect situation. Loyal Jerryists who will always have a job.

It all starts at the top!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Looking forward to seeing you in a Murphy jersey at the next Bulls outing.

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Everyone hammers KC Johnson, and it is warranted. He did, however, have his version of this story a while back and tweeted as much. Give the guy a little credit for not being a total company line panderer all of the time.

K.C. Johnson ‏@KCJHoop 23h
Good stuff today from @WojYahooNBA on significance of Rose's return for franchise. I had this take in July: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013 ... odeau-gar-

Agree. It is funny that the biggest complaint of Thibs is that the players try too hard in the regular season (right Rozner?).

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Has Paul W. Sullivan ever covered the Bulls before? He has been putting in some work on the team recently and I don't think I have seen that before.

Thibs drafted these players.....right.........WTF

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.